Sudarsan Roy Chaudhuri won this seat for the CPI-M in 1989 and 1991, but in 1996 his luck changed. He was defeated by the Congress's Pradip Bhattacharya by just 6,000 votes. The BJP's Debebrata Chowdhary, who came third, took away 60,122 votes. This was only the fourth time that the Congress has won this seat.